This might seem like something out of science fiction, right alongside 45’s “Space Force.” But the fact of the matter is that scientists are doing amazing things with Artificial Intelligence every day, and this will give rise to some serious ethical questions in the future. People, Congress included, should be as well informed as possible about new developments in A.I.

During the Facebook congressional hearing, it was woefully apparent that Congress had no idea what it was talking about. This stuff is important and we should monitor these things as a country, as we have no way idea what impact it will have on our and our children's future. I do not think that by having periodic reports on AI will increase our congressmen and women's understanding of it significantly. However, it is a step in the right direction and later on we will be able to hold our representatives accountable when we find out they did not read or pay attention to these reports later down the line.

Absolutely. The pace of AI advancements will only speed up from here, and in order to keep up with developments, congress should be informed. AI policy and regulation will be quintessential to the safety of AI in the coming years.

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It’s unlikely that periodic reports on advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) will improve lawmakers’ understanding of the technology or any resulting legislation.

Science needs to be able to explore AI without the government constantly in the way. This is just a stepping stone to trying to control the scientists. Besides, these are the same people who didn’t understand how Facebook works, or that we have moved past the dial up era. Do you really think they understand AI?

We already have Artificial Intelligence in the White House, we like to have some real intelligence. The difference between a smart person and a dumb person, a smart person knows they are dumb and a dumb person think they are smart and are willing to tell you how smart they are! Open mouth remove all doubt. You have to have people that are in this century to understand AI.

Bill Data

What is House Bill H.R. 6090?

This bill ― the Artificial Intelligence Reporting (AIR) Act ― would require the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (MLAI) to submit a report to Congress every 120 days covering the advancements in machine learning in America.

The report would include:

A strategic plan for unclassified machine learning and artificial intelligence research and development, in consultation with the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program and appropriate subgroups of such programs including the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Interagency Working Group.

The use and status of unclassified machine learning and artificial intelligence applications across the federal government.

Efforts taken to enhance the Federal research and development enterprise by embracing a diverse workforce.

Impact

Labor force; the science and engineering community; the White House; and Congress.

Cost of House Bill H.R. 6090

A CBO estimate is unavailable.

More Information

“New and emerging technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence are transforming businesses in every industry and sector. However, these technologies will also cause major disruptions in our labor forces. H.R. 6090 will provide us the data to continue to be a global leader in research and development and science and technology. Most importantly, it will provide Congress the data to diversify the federal R&D workforce and prepare America’s workforce for the jobs of tomorrow.”

Of Note: On May 3, 2016, President Barack Obama’s White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced a “series of workshops and an interagency working group to learn more about the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI).”

As part of the initiative, OSTP announced that it would co-host four public workshops and an inter-agency working group to study the benefits and risks of AI. The mission of the four workshops was “to spur public dialogue on AI and machine learning and identify challenges and opportunities related to this emerging technology.”

In addition, OSTP also announced the creation of a new National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (MLAI). The Subcommittee on MLAI was established by action of the NSTC, Committee on Technology (COT). According to the charter of the MLAI subcommittee, “the purpose of the MLAI is to monitor the state of art in machine learning and artificial intelligence (within the Federal Government, in the private sector, and internationally)…”

The AIR Act of 2018 will simply ensure that the Subcommittee on MLAI submits a report to Congress 120 days after the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter. This report will include the following components already existent in the charter of MLAI.

Official Title

To provide for a report by the Committee on Technology of the National Science and Technology Council on machine learning and artificial intelligence.

This might seem like something out of science fiction, right alongside 45’s “Space Force.” But the fact of the matter is that scientists are doing amazing things with Artificial Intelligence every day, and this will give rise to some serious ethical questions in the future. People, Congress included, should be as well informed as possible about new developments in A.I.

Science needs to be able to explore AI without the government constantly in the way. This is just a stepping stone to trying to control the scientists. Besides, these are the same people who didn’t understand how Facebook works, or that we have moved past the dial up era. Do you really think they understand AI?

During the Facebook congressional hearing, it was woefully apparent that Congress had no idea what it was talking about. This stuff is important and we should monitor these things as a country, as we have no way idea what impact it will have on our and our children's future. I do not think that by having periodic reports on AI will increase our congressmen and women's understanding of it significantly. However, it is a step in the right direction and later on we will be able to hold our representatives accountable when we find out they did not read or pay attention to these reports later down the line.

Absolutely. The pace of AI advancements will only speed up from here, and in order to keep up with developments, congress should be informed. AI policy and regulation will be quintessential to the safety of AI in the coming years.

We already have Artificial Intelligence in the White House, we like to have some real intelligence. The difference between a smart person and a dumb person, a smart person knows they are dumb and a dumb person think they are smart and are willing to tell you how smart they are! Open mouth remove all doubt. You have to have people that are in this century to understand AI.

Until the House and the Senate can display a functional understanding of basic things like the Internet and Facebook, this is a pointless undertaking. Can you imagine trying to explain the difference between a generative adversarial network and a recurrent neural network to someone like Senator Hatch? Better that they focus on more important issues like poverty.

AI is potentially the most world changing technology around. I have little if any faith in the ability of Congress to actually understand or keep up with developments but it should be carefully watched.

No Cause Republicans,won't fund science and don't believe in science and most are morons and the GOP would probably make it illegal like they do everything else. So I vote No! Mainly cause Republicans are Morons! And so are some democrats like Joe manchin dumber then a bag of door nails.

I think Congress should be aware of a lot of things they apparently aren't. Writing laws about individual subjects to get them to do the job of knowing appropriate background information on what they are legislating seems silly but if that is what it takes then I suppose it is a good idea.

What are they going to do with this information. Don’t you have to be able to critically think or have some sort of intellectual thought to disseminate the information AI engineers would provide? Before we concern ourselves with our leaders knowing about artificial intelligence, let’s get them to agree on intelligent facts first, like global warming.

The only way to keep laws in sync with technology is for the lawmakers to know what's going on. Too many times laws are trying to play catch up after negative incidents have happened. It would be great to have some forward thinkers and long term planning.